“The Englishman could have removed it on the ride back without his noticing. They were both on the same horse.”

“Where is the messenger now?”

Her eyes widened. “I had forgotten all about him.”

“So had I. Check on him when ye leave me, and send someone back to tell me what is about. Ye might set a guard on him as well.” Catching the worried frown on her face, he reached out to pat her hand reassuringly. “’Tis a spot o’ trouble to be sure, but just a spot. So long as we keep them outside the wall, all will be well. Duncan will roust them when he returns.”

“How long do you think ’twill be ere he returns?” Lady Wildwood asked, speaking up for the first time.

The way Angus hesitated over answering made Iliana a bit nervous. She understood why when he spoke. “’Tis four days’ travel to reach Colquhoun.”

“Four days?” Her mother was openly horrified at that news.

“Four days there, four days back, and however long his battle lasts,” Iliana said morosely. “We have lost many of our men on the first day, my lord. I do not think—” She paused when she saw the exhaustion on the man’s pale face. She could not burden him with her fears. Instead, she forced a smile and reassured him. “I do not think ’twill be a problem to fend them off for that long.”

“Yer a braugh lass. I like that,” Angus muttered, then closed his eyes.

Iliana peered at him silently for a moment, then glanced toward her mother when the woman murmured, “He’ll rest now for a while.”

“Aye.” She frowned at the dark smudges under her eyes. “You should do so as well. You have been up here the whole day helping Gertie with him.”

Lady Wildwood shrugged her worry away. “He would not have been harmed were it not for me.”

Iliana had been about to walk past her to go check on the messenger when those words stopped her. “’Tis not your fault, Mother.”

“Aye. ’Tis. Greenweld would not be here were it not for me.”

“Greenweld is a selfish, greedy bastard. If you wish to blame him, then do. But do not be so foolish as to blame yourself along with him.”

“We cannot withstand him for two weeks. We do not have enough men.”

“We will do well enough.”

An expression of despair crossed her mother’s features. “I should never have come here. I knew he would follow. I came here and put my child and all of her people at risk,” she muttered with self-disgust, then, “He would leave you in peace, did I but surrender to him.”

Iliana felt a chill run up her spine at those words and her eyes widened in horror.

“You must see the truth of that, child?” she said pleadingly. “It is all he wants.”